Press release

C.H. Cheng elected as first Hong Kong APNIC Exco Member

Mr Che-Hoo Cheng, an Executive Committee member of Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA), was elected as the first Hong Kong member of the Executive Council of Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC).

Three seats of the APNIC Executive Council were returned by election. The APNIC 1998 Annual General Meeting was being held at the Shangri La Manila Hotel on February 22, 1998. Che-Hoo Cheng secured the second highest number of votes returned among 13 nominees from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The other two newly elected Executive Council members are Mr. Toru Takahashi from Japan and Mr.Geoff Huston from Australia.

Since 1992, the procedures for obtaining IP network numbers from a single organisation in the US have been replaced by a distributed system whereby applications for IP network numbers across the Asia and Pacific Rim regions are processed by local Internet Registries (local IR's). APNIC was delegated to provide the service of allocating and registering Internet resources for the purpose of enabling communications via open system network protocols and to assist in the development and growth of the Internet in the Asia and Pacific Rim region. Therefore, the Executive Council of APNIC plays a vital role in the information hub of Pacific Rim.

"I always want to contribute to the Internet community especially to Asia Pacific and Hong Kong. And, I think Hong Kong should have a voice in the Asia Pacific community."said Mr.C.H. Cheng

"We believe that this is a marvelous news to the development of Hong Kong ISP industry. HKISPA will definitely support Mr.Cheng and will reflect the industry concerns through Mr.Cheng to APNIC." Mr Daniel Ng, Chairman of HKISPA said.

Mr. Che-Hoo Cheng is the Head of Data Communications and Networking Section (DCNS) of Computer Services Centre / Information Technology Service Unit (CSC/ITSU) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a member of Network Task Force of Joint Universities Computer Centre (JUCC). The Centre has set up, and now manages, Hongkong Academic and Research Network (HARNET). He is also in charge of the operational part of the domain name registration under .hk domain for HKNIC, which is under the management of JUCC.

He is also a member of Task Force on Technical Standards of Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee (IIAC) of the Hong Kong Government chartered to advise on the development of Hong Kong Information Infrastructure (HKII). Under IIAC, he also leads the Expert Group on Protocols and Service Elements concentrating on studying of Internet standards.

Besides, he is an Executive Committee member of HKISPA.